Sunday, December 30, 2007

Canyon and Penelope get a magic carpet sleigh rideOur not quite Kosher nativity scene.Joseph upset that there is no room at the Inn. Or maybe it was that Kosher thing :)Mallory the star of any show.Peeps and Canyon make out like bandits on Christmas morning.

Friday, December 28, 2007

It was such a wonderful day! Here is a view as we headed to the Salt Lake Temple for her sealing ceremony.Sadly I don't have any pictures of the happy couple after the ceremony as it was so freezing cold and I was afraid my fingers would get frost bite if I took out a camera.

But I did snap a few of the reception. Here is one of the ladies hanging out and waiting for the bride to arrive.Here is HB and Penee sharing a romantic moment as they wait for the bride and groom to appear.The view from the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building is truly breathtaking. These pictures don't do it justice but here they are anyway.Here are pictures from around the table that had the most fun in the whole room.

Twinsies and MalloryMal and CamLacy and LindsayAnd of course the ever smiling Peeps.

Monday, December 17, 2007

This Saturday I woke up early and went running on the Provo River Parkway Trail. It was a beautiful day and I had a beautiful run. Here is a snapshot of how pretty it was.....even by the Riverwoods Mall.After the fun run I met my good friend Julie at the Mainspring Day Spawhere we enjoyed a delicious massage. Afterwards we had lunch at the Olive Garden. We then did some shopping at Borders and then the University Mall. It was at the Mall that we lucked into a golden opportunity. It turns out that Sheri Dew was signing copies of her new book, God Wants A Powerful People You know how I love Ms. Dew and so Jules and I hopped in line. Since I had just come from a run and a massage I declined to have my picture taken with her. But I did snap a photo of her signing my book :)

To cap off this most delightful weekend. Sydnee came home from NY! Hooray! We had much sisterly bonding yesterday and followed that up with a most enjoyable soiree (Megs check my spelling but I think this is the French word for party) at Auntie Kathleens. We enjoyed some most delish soups and had a Christmas concert. I love a pre-Christmas Eve get together with the fam.

Monday, December 10, 2007

The above link is a map of the route that Dana, Devry and myself undertook this past wintry and very snowy Saturday. Little did we know that the path we chose could also have been a nice training ground for Ninja Warrior.

As you can see from the above picture we started out fresh as a daisy and rarin' to go. However we encountered a few obstacles on our run. Mostly that it was blocked off by fences as apparently it is the property of the US Government and they would prefer not to have trespassers. But we pressed on.After crawling through the fence we continued our run through the mud. You can catch a glimpse through the fence of how muddy it in fact was. As further proof I offer you a view of Devry's pant legs when we finished the run.

We ran unimpeded for about another mile. Well I should say that only Dana actually ran the full length of the course. Devry and I don't feel too bad about this fact as our course was almost 3.5 miles instead of the 3 we were supposed to run. Also the fact that Dana has been running for about a year longer than either Devry or I. Yet Dana must be praised because the conditions were treacherous and I almost slipped and fell in the mud on several occasions.

We came to our final obstacle just as we were about to flip around and run back. The problem was we didn't know it was our turning point. When we came to another fence we didn't want to have to climb it so, as there was an opening on the right side of the ravine we just crossed over.Once we had ascertained that this was in fact our turning around point we were not looking forward to recrossing that ravine as it was a bit scary. Fortunately we discovered that we would not need to.

As the above picture illustrates, if only we would have looked left. Where I am standing on the left is an opening in the fence. Yes, that's right as silly as we are we crossed the ravine for no good reason as we could have just walked right on through. Let's just say we won't be making that mistake again.

After running back from this point we finally finished our route. What a sense of accomplishment. I figure if we can run in conditions such as these we might in fact turn out to be runners after all.

Here we are just happy to be done!Good run ladies! Can't wait until our 4 mile next Saturday.

Miley bought some bubble gum last night. She offered me a piece and I started blowing bubbles much to Miss Canyon's delight. "Bubble?" she would say. She was mesmerized for a few bubble blows and then she decided she wanted a sample for herself. Take a look at her discovering the delights of Bubble Gum.

Condie Construction has a really fun format for their Christmas party. They buy and wrap a ton of gifts. Then they give everyone 2000 dollars of funny money and they auction off the gifts. Everyone gets into it and it's a lot of fun. The best part, you end up with the most random Christmas gifts.

This year I received via auction some adorable mugs....24 of them to be exact. a 3 million candle power rechargeable spotlight, a cute apple baking dish with apple crumble dessert mix and a lawnmower racing mania 2007 game for PC. I still had 550 dollars when all was said and done but it was a auctioneering gift buying frenzy for a solid hour.

I've brought the racing game into work today so that all of corporate Condie may enjoy. We are thinking about putting it on the server. What a great start to the Holiday season!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

I've been convinced (a moment of insanity clearly). To join with Lacy, Dana and Devry in training for a marathon. What the.......? I know but none the less. Yesterday I started with a 2 mile run. Let's just say that crawling to finish our 3 mile run on Saturday is not one bit of a stretch for me. So I'm posting a picture of my running shoes, shortly after finishing said run, as a reminder that I did in fact run for 25 minutes yesterday. My new motto......One foot in front of the other. Really what else can you ask for?

Monday, December 03, 2007

I've ever had! Jordan and Kim Peine hosted Devry and I last night up at their home in Salt Lake City. We had some seriously delicious French Onion Soup. And good conversation (although with Kim this is obviously a given).

Sunday, December 02, 2007

It was one year ago today that I flew to live over in Ireland. This past week I have just been reflecting on what a beautiful country it is and how lucky I was to have spent some months coming to know and love it.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

This is the sight that greeted me this morning. I adore the first snow of the season. Usually my joy only lasts until I have to drive in it, but it sure is beautiful. Now I must go and listen to some Christmas Carols immediately.